It is well known to those skilled in the art that gelled or crosslinked water-soluble polymers are useful in enhanced oil recovery operations. They have been used to alter the permeability of underground formations in order to enhance the effectiveness of water flooding operations. Polymers along with appropriate crosslinking agents are injected in an aqueous solution into the formation. The polymers then permeate into and gel in the regions having the highest water permeability. Any fluids injected into the formation in subsequent water flooding operations will then be diverted away from the regions in which the gel formed to areas of the formation now having a higher water permeability.
Many methods of gelling water-soluble polymers are known in the art such as organic crosslinking with phenolic compounds and water dispersible aldehydes. It is currently desirable to develop other crosslinking systems which may serve as alternatives to these crosslinking systems.
It would therefore be a valuable contribution to the art to provide an alternative crosslinking agent to those presently disclosed in the art.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel alternative crosslinking agent to those presently disclosed in the art.
Other aspects and objects of this invention will become apparent hereinafter as the invention is more fully described in the following summary of the invention and detailed description of the invention, examples, and claims.